


The Wall of Thorns

by lilmissmaya



Category: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Illness, M/M, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-06-02 21:04:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6582379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilmissmaya/pseuds/lilmissmaya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joe hides an injury, not wanting to worry the others, but things are going wrong...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Wall of Thorns

It all started with an injury. Just a minor one, received in battle. Painful, but not bad enough to worry anyone else with. So Joe wrapped it up himself, medicated from the stock of painkillers and antibiotics as usual, and did his best to act as if nothing was wrong.  
But something was going wrong, he slowly realized. The wound wasn’t healing, oozing blood and yellow fluid, aching with a pain that wouldn’t let him rest.   
It was grinding him down, fatigue and pain wearing on him until he was forgetting stupid things. Like why he came into the galley. To be fair, he didn’t have a clear memory of coming in here in the first place.   
Was it a fever? He was frozen down to his bones, despite the heavy coat he put on, cold to the point his joints hurt. Tea, yes, something to drink and warm him up. If only his fuzzy brain would cooperate, if only the room would cooperate and stop moving, it was making his stomach unhappy.   
Maybe he should leave this for later and try to sleep again. (maybe he should find Doc, get some help. But no, he couldn’t look weak, they needed him to be strong.)

“Joe?” Marvelous found him holding onto the counter with a death grip, eyes shut tight. “You look like shit.”  
“Hng.” was the blue ranger’s only reply. He really did look bad, white and clammy, shivering under a coat that should be too heavy for the warm ship.   
“You need to be in bed. Come on you-” he reached out, laying a hand on his hip to turn him around.  
There was a gasp and Joe went down like a log, straight into his arms.  
“DOC!” Marvelous yelled, trying to lower him down to the floor without dropping him. Something damp was seeping through his shirt, and animal fear hit the red ranger. “Joe, wake up, please.”  
Joe mumbled nonsense, but didn’t wake up. His lips were white and his skin burned with how much heat was coming off of him.   
Doc came skidding in, sliding on the tile to their side.   
“What happened?”  
“I don’t know, he’s sick, he just-” no, no panicking, even as he smoothed damp hair out of his first mate’s pale face.  
“Let's take him to his room, get all this off of him.” marvelous nodded, picking him up in a bridal carry. Joe moan, swinging at him blindly, but with no real force.  
“Easy, easy there.” he murmured to him, hoping he wasn’t hurting him, trying not to think was was wet under his hands.  
Joe’s room was spare, and for once the captain was glad, there was nothing in his way to trip over. Trying to lay him down gently, Joe still cried out in pain, arching off the mattress.  
“Sorry, sorry!” Doc frowned, working on pulling off the blue ranger’s clothing. Half awake now, he fought against it, fighting out of reflex.   
“Captain, help?” the sound of his voice snapped him out of whatever was going on inside his head. He crawled onto the bed, holding the damp face in his hands.  
“Joe? Joe, look at me.” the struggling stopped as he tried to focus on his captain. There was a hazy sort of recognition. “We’re not going to hurt you, but we need to get you undressed, okay?  
“Captain…” he mumbled, eyes fluttering closed and going much too limp. There was too much effort going into his breathing, and it hurt something inside his chest. But he no longer fought against them as they stripped him down to his underwear.  
“What’s that?” there was a bandage soaked in yellow and red, taped over his hip and around to his back. Doc just made a face, leaving to get his supplies.  
When he came back, he pulled on gloves and peeled the sodden bandage off. The wound underneath wasn’t deep, but it showed no signs of healing. It was an angry red, swollen and green around the edges. Joe made a sound something like a sob as the engineer probed at it, trying to pull away from the pain even in unconsciousness. He wanted to be angry at him, yell at him for being so stoic and stubborn, unwilling to ask for help. He was sure he would be plenty angry once he was sure his ex soldier was going to live. Right now it was all he could do to not sob.  
“That's odd.” Doc commented. “I don’t think it’s infection.” He pulled open the nightstand drawer, probing at the pill wrappers inside. “He took antibiotics, a poison maybe, a toxin?”  
“He was fine yesterday?” was he? He’d been quiet, but he was always quiet. He’d not eaten much at supper, giving the leftovers to him so they wouldn’t go to waste. Had he been pale, a bit too tired? He couldn’t remember, just took advantage of the fact he was there, always there.  
“He’s taken enough painkillers to drop the whole empire.” that’d explain why no one noticed too much, hiding the symptoms until it dropped him. A scream was building in his chest and he stuffed it down. “I have to do some research, see if I can find out what it might be. In the meanwhile, could you take him into the shower and put him under some luke-warm water? It might lower the fever a bit.”  
“Okay.” Joe was coming back up, eyes hazily staring at them in confusion. “Come on, idiot.” it came out harsher than he meant to, and it worked to irritate Joe. He pushed himself up, trying to push marvelous out of his way as he tried to climb out of bed. He stood for a moment, swaying, before plummeting straight into his arms. “I am helping you.” he growled, “so stop fighting.”   
He half walked, half dragged him to the shower, trying to not drop him too hard on the tiled floor. Twisting on the water to about body warmth, marvelous settled down behind him, sitting him against his own chest. Too warm under his hands, too limp as the water poured over them. Breathing too fast, his pulse thready and irregular. If he died, if he left him too-  
“I’m missing dinner because of you.” he grumbled to cover the fear.   
“Dinner?” Joe mumbled, opening his eyes. “Why are we in the shower?” the awful shivering finally stopped.   
“Because of you, you stubborn idiot! If you’d gotten some help you wouldn't be so sick! Oh no-” he pulled him closer, tucking the damp head under his chin as Joe tried to stand up. “You’re staying right here.”  
“It was a minor injury.” a moment, and Joe let himself sink into the comfort of his arms. Just for this moment, a rare, safe moment. “I took medication, made sure it was clean…”  
“And here you are.” his embrace tightened a bit. What would I do without you, he wanted to say. He gave him chest pain when he did things like this. “Doc says it might be a toxin.”  
“Oh.”  
Water was seeping through his pants and these boots were a total loss. But Joe's breathing had slowed to something near normal, a little color back to his face.   
“Are you in pain?”  
“A little.” so long as he remained still, it wasn’t so bad. The buttons on marvelous’s jacket were digging into his back, but it was still nice being held. He could enjoy this for a little longer-  
“How is he doing?” doc poked his head in, making a small noise when Joe lifted his head up. “Ah, that must have done the trick, you look much better.”  
“Hng.” Joe pulled out of his captain’s arms, using the towel bar to help himself to his feet. The room spun again and he closed his eyes against it. A roaring noise filled his ears and he leaned his forehead against the cold tile. If he could just get to bed without falling on his face again- it took a moment to realize someone was talking to him over the noise in his head.   
“-thing to eat?”  
“Hm?” he cracked open an eye, they were looking worriedly at him. Shit. he didn’t want them to see him like this, unable to even stand without help. Especially not the captain, he needed to be strong so marvelous wouldn’t worry-  
“Could you hold down something to eat?” doc repeated. His stomach roiled with the motion of the room, he blinked and marvelous was holding him again. Swallowing, he tried to get some moisture in his throat.  
“No thank you.”  
“Soup at least?” he waited to respond until he was laying down and everything settled around him.   
“Okay.” some fuzzy part of his brain pointed out he needed fluids and calories to fight off this fever and heal. And someone was combing his wet hair out of his face but it couldn’t possibly the captain- it felt nice. Or maybe it was the warm darkness pulling him down, far away from the pain. He was just so tired, just a few minutes away from it all to rest. He hadn’t slept well in days...  
“Joe? Joe, wake up.” marvelous shook his shoulder, panic rising again.   
“Let him sleep.” Doc watched him hesitate before pulling a blanket over him, smoothing out the dark hair. There was something unusually tender about it and the soft look on his captain's face. “I have the computer working on his blood sample. Would you like to go change and get something to eat? I can stay with him.”  
“Oh.” he blinked, realizing he was still wet. “I’ll change and come back in a minute.” odd, his captain never turned down a chance to eat. Maybe he and Joe… naw. 

It was hard to sit and watch him shiver under a sheet as his fever rose again. He muttered nonsense from time to time, swinging or kicking at invisible enemies. His eyes, when opened were glassy and unfocused. If there was something, anything he could do to make it better, let him rest quietly….  
He hesitated a moment, before crawling into the narrow bed with him. It had worked, sort of, in the shower. Slowly, aware that even half dead he had a good punch, he pulled him close. The panicked mumbling and thrashing slowed, then stilled. His breathing evened out, relaxing into a deeper rhythm of sleep. Being held, holding another warm body against his own, it’d been a long time. And hard to admit how much he’d been wanting to do this with Joe. From the moment he saw him. It was too easy to bury his fingers in the long black hair, too easy to press a kiss and not worry about being pushed away. It’d be wrong to take advantage-  
“Boss?” oh crap. He sat up, tried not to look guilty. Doc was in the doorway.   
“Anything?”  
“The computer identified the toxin, and there is a treatment, but we’ll have to-”  
“I’ll do it.” he slipped out of bed, reaching for and pulling on his long coat. “What do I have to steal, who do I have to fight?”  
“Are you-?” he bit his lip, looking at the terribly still figure in the bed. “Come on up, I'll tell you on the way.”

It was murky, wherever Joe was. He couldn’t move, he could hardly breathe, like he had lungs full of fluid. Somewhere there were voices, outside of the murkiness he was trapped in. marvelous? He tried to struggle up to the surface. A sharp pain in his arm and suddenly everything was clearing-  
He curled up, coughing wracking his body. But with each his breathing came easier and easier until he could take in a full lungful.   
“Joe?” doc and marvelous were standing over him, both looking singed on the edges, the rest of the crew were hovering outside the door. He felt…. Awake. Like he’d been beaten from head to toe, and terribly weary, but… awake.   
“What-” he coughed and accepted a glass of water, gulping it down. “What happened?”  
“You were poisoned, we had to get the antidote.” doc explained. Marvelous stood at his side, looking pensive.   
“Oh”  
“Are you up to some food?”  
“Yes, I think so.” his stomach made an upset noise, reminding him it’d been a long while since he ate.   
“Good, alright, the rest of you, out, out of here! He’s going to be fine!” in a moment it was just him and the captain.  
“Sir, I-”  
“You should have told me you were hurt and getting sick!”  
“I didn't want to worry you, not with everyone else. gai alone is a handful…”  
“I always worry about you! but if I know you need me, I can do something about it!” he shook with anger, hands clenched. “Not… not… watching you just about...” something was tearing inside his chest, and he wanted to throw himself in his arms. Instead he just clutched the blanket, looking anywhere but his captain.   
“Joe, I… I am going to do something so don’t punch me.” the blue ranger found his face being tilted up, towards Marvelous, as he leaned down-  
-and kissed him.   
As they parted, he released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, all the tension melting away.   
“So. I am going to spend the night here, with you.”  
“Okay.” There was a warm feeling in his chest, a relief.   
“And… when you are better we are going to have a long talk.” he rested his forehead against Joe’s, hands holding hands.  
And that…. Was that.

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first gokaiger fic! I hope you all like it and I want to thank Batneko for showing me so many pretty pictures of joe XD


End file.
